If you can’t make it in person you can tune in to the livestream or watch the recording at tinyurl.com/lpscyoutube.
Here are some items we’re watching:
Keep reading for a full rundown on these agenda items and how they might affect you.
This matter is being considered after being deferred last month. In November 2025, PSC Staff opened a docket to create a vegetation management pilot program to increase spending, address problems and improve reliability. The short-term pilot would allow utility companies to charge customers extra each month to recover costs they spend on vegetation management.
Staff recommended the program spending be capped at 1% of a customer’s annual average usage in order to reduce customer bill impacts. They also recommended the program run 2 years and 9 months, from April 2026 to December 2028.
At the February Commission meeting, utility SWEPCO asked the Commission for an increase in program budget, more than double what was being proposed by Staff. If approved, the bill impact on SWEPCO customers would be around $3, a significant increase. SWEPCO specifically has also asked for a third pot of money for vegetation management though their System improvement application, currently pending at the Commission.
Utilities already receive money for vegetation management through existing rates, this pilot program is proposing additional funding. However, many utilities don’t spend all of the money they receive for vegetation management, and instead, they send it back to company shareholders. That means we’re paying for grid upkeep that isn’t being carried out and is instead going directly into corporate monopoly utility profits, while not improving the reliability of our grid.
The Alliance maintains the position that in order for utility companies to keep getting more money for vegetation management, they need to use the money they already have, and then provide evidence for how those upgrades tangibly increased the resilience of our grid. Resiliency investments must be tied to measurable outcomes.
Entergy Louisiana has proposed a new program that will save customers money on their electricity bills while also helping to reduce the strain on the electricity grid. It’s called demand response.
Demand response programs are a way to balance electricity supply and demand. The program Entergy is proposing creates financial incentives to encourage customers to voluntarily lower their electricity usage during times of high demand. Think of the recent Winter Storm Fern or summertime in Louisiana where you and 70,000 of your neighbors are running your A/C unit on 70 degrees.
Entergy is proposing 3 new demand response programs residents can sign up for, including a smart thermostat program, an electric vehicle charging program, and a battery energy storage program. (Remember this is only for Entergy Louisiana customers. Entergy New Orleans customers have separate programs).
By 2030, Entergy expects to save 155 MW of electricity through the various programs, which is equivalent to building a new natural gas plant.
In the future as the program grows, we’d love to see Entergy focus on signing up customers in load pockets, areas where there is an imbalance in supply and demand that threatens access to power when needed. Targeted demand response is a great tool to combat widespread outages and improve grid reliability.
In September 2025, Entergy filed an application with the commission that would relieve them of a financial penalty that has been in place since the 90s related to River Bend Nuclear Power Station, which would raise customer rates and provide no new benefits to capacity, reliability, resilience, or general diversity.
The Commission found Entergy was imprudent in some of their spending on the plant. River Bend is still running, and now Entergy is arguing the Commission’s decision back in the 90s was rooted in a different position on nuclear energy. Now that the Commission is more friendly toward nuclear, Entergy is saying the same penalty wouldn’t be applied now.
The Alliance has intervened in the proceeding and holds the position that Entergy’s proposal to eliminate the DAP is, at its core, a proposal to reverse the Commission’s prior findings and conclusions regarding over spending associated with the construction of River Bend. Testimony by other intervenors supports our arguments.
Tomorrow, the Commission will vote on whether to hire a consultant to help them navigate this docket.
This item has been on the agenda since December, but has been deferred to this month.
At their December 2025 meeting, the Commission passed a directive put forth by Commissioner Jean-Paul Coussan that establishes a new regulatory pathway for large loads like data centers to be brought onto the electricity grid faster. The “lightning directive” makes it easier for companies to get power by waiving the requirements that protect existing customers.
At the same meeting, Commissioner Lewis also proposed a directive aimed at addressing electricity demand from AI data centers and industry, but with a very different approach. It’s important to note his directive was not in conflict with CM Coussan’s directive. Consideration of Commissioner Lewis’ directive was deferred to this month’s meeting.
Commissioner Lewis’ proposal directs staff to conduct a process for developing a framework to give guidance to utilities and data centers on the consumer protections the Commission would use to ensure new (or expanding) large customers (and utilities) do not harm residents and other businesses. It calls for a transparent policy making process, developed with insight from experts and intended to balance the interests of residents, utilities, and other stakeholders.
The Alliance supports Commission Lewis’ directive. As a regulator of electric utilities, the LPSC’s role is to set policy that weighs and balances the interests of all kinds of customers.
“Move fast and break things” may be Mark Zuckerberg’s motto, and tech industry’s modus operandi, but it is no way to regulate. It is a way to break things. Unfortunately, a lot of Louisianans are already broke.
For the first time in the whole country, a utility is requesting to end service to customers in a coastal region, as a result of high rebuilding costs. In 2021, Hurricane Ida impacted much of the utility infrastructure in South LA. Despite having 90% of the recovery costs paid for by FEMA, local utility cooperative, SLECA, determined the cost to rebuild the damaged lines is too great to do. They are now asking the Public Service Commission for approval to abandon their lines and end service to some customers.
Residents who live in the area have strongly opposed ending service, and last month, Administrative Law Judge Melanie Guillot recommended that the Commission find Sleca failed to support its argument and that the request should therefore be denied.
Tomorrow, at the request of Commissioner Jean-Paul Coussan, the matter will be brought up for consideration.
The Alliance encourages you to attend the PSC’s meeting if you’re able and provide your input by submitting public comment at the meeting.
Where: 602 North Fifth Street, Baton Rouge, LA 70802 Galvez Building, Natchez Room 1st Floor
When: Wednesday, March 18 at 9am
Agenda: Click here to view the agenda.
If you can’t make it in person to Baton Rouge you can tune in via livestream at tinyurl.com/LPSCyoutube or follow our live coverage of the meeting on Twitter/X.
While you must attend the meeting in person to submit public comment, that’s why The Alliance exists. We know most people don’t have the time or energy to go to obscure meetings like these and, while it’s critical that your voice is heard, know that AAE will be advocating on your behalf and behalf of all Louisianans at PSC meetings.
